


Just In Case

by strictlyhighbuttonshoes



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode 2 spoilers, Female Friendship, Friendship, Gen, I have no idea if these tags are even necessary, I never know what to do here tbh, Recovery, Season/Series 03, Spoilers, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-16
Updated: 2015-10-16
Packaged: 2018-04-26 15:35:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5010205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strictlyhighbuttonshoes/pseuds/strictlyhighbuttonshoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens to Simmons in between arriving back on Earth and waking up in bed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just In Case

**Author's Note:**

> So, when I watched episode 2 (which this has spoilers for), I found it a LITTLE odd that Simmons had a weapon with her after she'd obviously been stripped of everything she had on her that was ruined and dirty. So, I came to the conclusion that someone gave it back to her, so she'd have it when she woke up, disoriented and scared. I thought Bobbi was probably the most likely to do that.
> 
> This was honestly supposed to be really short, mostly just focusing on the random stake of wood Simmons had with her when she woke up, but I figured that some looking after and washing might have occurred so I put that in too. 
> 
> Haven't watched episode 3 yet, so this picks up from the end of episode 2 of the second season.

When they’d pulled FitzSimmons up from the hole in the ground, Simmons had been shaking and scared, but not of them. Bobbi knew that she’d been running from something – there was something in her eyes. She’d collapsed from exhaustion as soon as they got her on the Helicarrier. A sedative that would help her have a restful sleep followed after that. 

Daisy and Bobbi, being women, were given the task of cleaning her up while she slept, which turned out to be harder than they had originally thought. Most of Simmons’ clothing was completely ruined – what she’d been wearing when the portal had swallowed her had been the base of her protective layers. 

Over that, scarves and various other scraps of fabric were tied haphazardly around her body, along with the makeshift knapsack that definitely hadn’t been with her before she’d been taken. 

Bobbi made a mental note to have a rifle through that later. 

Even with both of them, it was a task and a half to remove Simmons from her abundance of layers, not to mention the thick coat of grime and mud that was caked on her skin. 

By the time an hour had passed, they had only succeeded in cleaning part of her face and removing all of her clothes, leaving her only in a thin S.H.I.E.L.D. medical gown. Bobbi had eventually given up trying to wipe away the filth, and called for a bath to be run down in the shower area.

“Think that’s a good idea?” Daisy asked, watching Simmons closely. “She could wake up while she’s in the water.”

“I’ll go and get some more sedative while you take her downstairs,” Bobbi replied. Daisy opened her mouth, probably to protest the use of drugs on an already-exhausted agent, but Bobbi cut her off. “It’ll just be a mild, hard-hitting shot. Just in case she wakes up and is disoriented. Trust me.”

“I can take her if she tries to escape,” Daisy commented. 

“So could I,” Bobbi agreed, “but she’s been through some shit that we can’t understand. She’s been running away from something. See those tiny cuts on her face? She covered them up with some kind of sand. Whatever was after her? They tracked her by scent. Imagine what she’d do if she woke up to find her disguise being taken away from her.”

Daisy lapsed into thoughtful silence for a moment. “We… could just leave her dirty?”

Bobbi smirked at her. “I’m sorry, do _you_ want to deal with Fitz when he sees that she still looks like she’s been rolling around in mud?”

Daisy winced. “Fair point,” she answered. She stood up from the chair beside the gurney, and retrieved the wheelchair from the corner. 

Bobbi hefted Simmons into her arms, and frowned at the weight of her body. It had been months since she’d disappeared, after all. There had obviously been water where she had been taken, but was there food? How much time had passed there, and was it different from here? Shaking her head to clear it, Bobbi lowered Simmons into the wheelchair and left Daisy to wheel her away, striding off towards her lab.

*

Daisy was testing the heat of the water when Bobbi walked into the bathroom. It was steaming, and the glass of the mirror on the wall was already fogged up. 

“Not too hot?” Bobbi asked, laying the syringe on the pile of towels near the door. She went over and stuck her finger into the water – it wasn’t boiling hot, but just on the steamier side of warm. It wouldn’t be too much of a shock, hopefully. 

“Nope,” Daisy replied. “Just the right temperature to get this dirty shell off my best friend.” 

Together, they shimmied Simmons out of her gown, and lifted her between them, so her toes hovered above the ground. They both gripped one of her knees and swung her over the side of the bath. 

“I don’t like how short she is,” Bobbi groused. Her shoulders ached from bending down.

“I don’t like how _light_ she is,” Daisy remarked. Simmons’ collarbones and ribs stuck out from her skin in an alarming way.

“Ready?”

“Yep.”

They lowered Simmons into the water, gently, until her feet were flat against the base. Then, they pivoted her and eased her down onto her back in the water, until she was mostly submerged, with her skull propped up against the back of the bath. 

As soon as she was down, both Daisy and Bobbi breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn’t woken up yet. 

Already, the water was getting dirty. The layers of dirt, mud and sand were being soaked off, and Simmons pale skin was starting to show through more. Daisy eyed the pile of washing tools next to the tub, consisting of combs, shampoos, sponges and lotions. 

“I can honestly say that I have never bathed another woman before,” she admitted, and Bobbi nodded. 

“Me neither, but I’m not about to ask Mack or Fitz to do it,” Bobbi said. “Although, you should do the top half, so she’ll see you first if she wakes up. The whole debacle is probably still fresh for her, and she never trusted me very much anyway.” 

Daisy hummed. “She will,” the other agent said. Bobbi smiled a little at that, and moved forward to get a sponge, rolling up her sleeves and kicked off her boots as she went. 

*

Simmons’ legs were clean and most of her stomach and hips and everything in between before Bobbi stopped to assess. Daisy was up to her elbows in the water, which was now grey, trying to get to Simmons’ back. Bobbi slid up and pulled the blonde’s shoulders forward so Daisy could reach, while just so happened to be the moment that Simmons woke up. 

She came awake with a silent scream, the sudden movement sending Daisy reeling back on her haunches, and Bobbi immediately started looking for the sedative. 

Simmons was railing against Daisy’s hands, which had come up when she quickly recovered, trying to get Simmons to stay in the water. Not a sound came out of Simmons’ mouth, which pinged an alarm in the back of Bobbi’s mind. The blonde was breathing hard, and her eyes were wide, and they fixed on Bobbi just as her hand closed around the syringe. 

Then Daisy was there, her fingers clutching the sides of her friend’s face, coaxing her gaze to redirect. “Jemma, Jemma,” she murmured, her voice softening as she tried to soothe her friend. “Shh, okay? It’s okay, you’re back at the base, you’re safe. Nothing’s going to hurt you here, okay?”

Her hands were doing something, drumming on Simmons’ skull. Bobbi’s eyes focused on them, and she saw the pattern being tapped out. 

_Sedative._

Daisy could see something in her friend that Bobbi couldn’t. She wouldn’t be able to calm her down, so she was signalling Bobbi to sedate her. 

Bobbi slid back toward the tub, her bootless feet making no sound, the syringe held securely in her hand. Daisy continued to stroke her friend’s cheeks and whisper to her. Bobbi circled behind Simmons, keeping to the wall, and then darted forward, plunging the syringe into the blonde’s shoulder and injecting the sedative. 

Simmons slumped forwards into Daisy’s arms barely a second later, not even turning to see who had come up behind her. 

“Phew,” Daisy muttered, and Bobbi grunted in agreement, placing the empty syringe on the bathroom sink counter. 

“Is she too far gone?” Bobbi asked, tentatively holding Simmons up again so Daisy could get to her back. Daisy went back to the sponging after a moment, looking a little dazed. 

“It was like she wasn’t even seeing me,” Daisy murmured. “She was looking right at me, but her eyes, they weren’t even focused. It was like she was looking through me, at something else. And she looked terrified.” 

“Hey,” Bobbi interrupted, before Daisy could spiral into a panic. “We can ask her when she wakes up. I don’t think she’s slept in days. The more rest she gets, the better she’ll be. We’ll have to keep her sedated, but it won’t be like she’ll be a vegetable. Portion control when it comes to sedation is something we’ve got down to an art, practically.” 

Daisy gave her a sad smile, and got back to work with the sponge.

*

After they’d dried Simmons off and taken her back to her room, they dressed her in slightly less hospital-like, softer pants and a shirt, and put her back in the wheelchair to take her to her bigger room, without all the medical shit that might make her feel trapped. Bobbi had dressed all her minor cuts and scrapes, and there was a bandage around her stomach from a slightly deeper wound that had required a couple of stitches. 

When the three women got into the room that had been prepared for Simmons, they found Fitz in the chair beside the bed, fast asleep. Daisy made a tiny ‘aww’ sound, and draped a small blanket around his shoulders from the closet. 

They lifted Simmons out of the chair once again, and laid her in the bed, arranging her hair so it was out of her face and propping her up so she didn’t aggravate her bandages. 

Daisy crept out ahead of Bobbi, who was just putting the finishing touches on a cut on Simmons’ hand. When she was sure that Daisy was out of earshot, Bobbi produced the stake that she had found in the pocket of Simmons’ pants. A light abrasion on Simmons’ left hip led her to assume that she kept it with her all the time – an improvised weapon that she always had on hand. 

Bobbi tucked the little wooden spike into the waistband of Simmons’ sleeping pants, on the side of her hip so it didn’t stab her while she slept. She figured that Simmons probably didn’t move around a lot in her sleep, if her own weapon hadn’t injured her already. 

“You keep this,” Bobbi whispered. “Just in case.”

_Just in case you wake up and you don’t know where you are and having your weapon in your hand makes you feel safer_ went unsaid. 

Bobbi slipped out of the room, leaving FitzSimmons to sleep in peace.

**Author's Note:**

> I thought it'd be cool if the agents have a Morse (hehe) code-like signal system for emergencies or quiet instances. Might come in handy! I had her not screaming out loud because she didn't make a sound when she woke up in bed, probably from being chased by whatever it was.
> 
> I have no idea how Simmons survived for a few months, which is how long Coulson said she'd been gone, but I think she definitely would have lost weight while on another planet with no food or water. Maybe the planet operates on a different time scale. Maybe she was only there for a couple of days. These are questions I will know the answers to once I see the latest episode. 
> 
> And... that's a wrap! Let me know what you thought :)


End file.
